In a working apparatus for manufacturing a glass plate having a desired shape by bend-breaking a glass plate, a grinding device is generally provided for grinding a peripheral edge of the bend-broken glass plate. This grinding device is so adapted as to suck and fix the bend-broken glass plate by a suction cup or the like and to grind the peripheral edge of this fixed glass plate.
In a case where the peripheral edge of the glass plate is ground, it is desirable to securely fix its vicinity, but it is difficult to do so with respect to various glass plates of different shapes with a single suction cup.
Accordingly, a glass-plate grinding device such as the one disclosed in, for example, JP-A-6-24778 has been proposed.
In the proposed glass-plate grinding device, a plurality of suction cups are moved in an X direction and a Y direction perpendicular to the X direction by using an X-direction moving device having a frame extending in the X direction and a Y-direction moving device having a frame extending in the Y direction so as to be disposed at positions suitable for sucking and holding in correspondence with the shape of the glass plate.
However, with such a glass-plate working apparatus, since the suction cups are provided on a base by means of a frame and the like and are restrained by the frame and the like, there is a possibility that the frame and the like may interfere with each other and make it impossible to arrange the suction cups at arbitrary positions. Hence, there is a possibility that it becomes impossible to arrange the respective suction cups at suitable positions corresponding to the shape of the glass plate.
The present invention has been devised in view of the above-described aspects, and its object is to provide a glass-plate working apparatus which makes it possible to arrange the suction cups at optimal positions for sucking and fixing the glass plate with respect to the respective shape of the glass plate.